Report 2020-301 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2020-301: Judicial Branch Procurement: Courts Generally Met Procurement Requirements, but Some Need to Improve Their Payment Practices (Release Date: January 2021)

Recommendation #5 To: Superior Court of California, County of Contra Costa

To comply with the requirements of state law, each court should immediately implement policies and procedures for notifying the State Auditor within 10 business days of entering into all contracts with estimated values over $1 million, except those contracts exempted from the notification requirement in state law.

60-Day Agency Response

We reviewed our existing contracts, including MOUs with the County, to identify contracts that have or are estimated to exceed $1 million that we have not sent notification to the State Auditor. We immediately notified the State Auditor of these contracts. We will monitor the values of new contracts in our Contracts Database for the State Auditor notification requirement going forward.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

As part of its 60-day response, the court provided documentation showing that it has notified our office of additional high-value contracts as required by state law. To the extent that the court follows the monitoring actions it describes in its response, it will help ensure that it fully complies with the notification requirement in state law.

All Recommendations in 2020-301

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.